Easter 2016

Hellooooo!! hope everyone’s week was good!!

As for mine!! After Having Bro Amissah (emmensa) baptized last week, he was then confirmed this past Sunday. We also had another Brother baptized! Brother Bright. 24 years old! You could just tell this guy was prepared to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ!

After Bright’s baptism, another guy we're working with, Lawrence, came up to Elder Sakala and I and asked when his baptism would be! so we set a date for the 10th of April. Hopefully after his baptism we are planning to take all our recent converts to the temple for Baptisms for the dead! They are all looking forward to having this experience and how grateful I am because I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!! which reminds me, I think we'll be going in May for Mother’s day!!

So besides that not much happened this week!

Okay we had a big storm roll in during the week. In the middle of the storm, lightning hit right beside our house. Chi, I felt like I was 4 years old again when I use to cover my ears because the thunder was super loud!! Again right before I went to bed, lightning hit right in the back yard!!!! I thought I was gonna to die!

The area is coming alive, we are working well with members and it's really helping the work move forward!! That’s the easiest way to make missionary work happen is with the wards' help. We've learned it is truly ward's responsibility to build the ward. If you want an increase in ward members, the ward should be bring people to the missionaries. Missionaries can find and contact as much as they want but the most effective tool is through member referrals.

This Easter season, let’s all take time to remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the great atoning sacrifice He suffered for us! I encourage all to use the power of the atonement to come unto Christ and to be truly converted to His gospel! How blessed we are to have a chance to change and become more like the Savior. Repentance is a process!! No matter how deep our sin or our struggles, the atonement can help and bless our lives! I know this to be true!!

I hope y’all have a great week!! keep smiling and pressing forward with faith 

in the Lord Jesus Christ!!!

Love and miss you ALLLL!!

Elder Morris!

Elder Rasband visits Ghana!

Hello from Africa my family and friends!

This will be a short email this week-

First we had a baptism on Sunday for a man named Amissah (Emenssa) We found out we had been spelling his name wrong all this time. His baptism was such a miracle!! The water was only up to his knees. He's a very short man but we were still concerned that it might take a few times to get him completely immersed. I was praying so hard that the water would be enough and YES, on the first try it surely was. He was so happy about his baptism.

I held a monkey!! So cute!!!!

Today (this is why my email is short, due to time) we went to Accra at 8 am for a mission conference. We met an Apostle of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Elder Rasband! We were given the opportunity to shake his hand as well as receive personal direction and inspired counsel from him! It was an amazing opportunity! We fasted on Sunday for inspiration and answers to any questions we might have. 

I happened to have 3 questions I was pondering this week: 1) Why was I called to this mission 2) What can I learn while being here and 3) How can I keep up my excitement to do the work. Amazingly, I received an answer to all 3 of these questions.

It was amazing to hear an Apostle speak face to face. He was literally 3-feet in front of my face! He boldly testified that he is familiar with the voice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he is a special witness of Him. That brought so much JOY to my heart! 

I know that this church is true and that our leaders are called of God. We are called of God, to serve the particular missions we are assigned to, through a living Prophet of God. As we are on our missions we will go through trials and experiences that will help prepare us for the rest of our lives. Perhaps for college, for our relationship with our future spouse, and for future employment. I learned that to build our fire (our desire to serve) we must feed the fire. We do this by gaining more love for our Savior, and master teacher, Jesus Christ. So, how do we do that? We do it by seeking Him, by learning more about Him, his life, and how he dealt with others. We follow how He lived His life!

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know His Church is once again restored to this earth!

I love and miss y'all back home and those of my friends serving missions!

Keep your head up and press forward in faith!

Love,

Elder Morris

March 7th, 2016 6 MONTHS IN GHANA!!!

Sorry if I didn't write you back today!!! We cafe'd late today so I don't have much time!!! But, let me catch you up from this past week.

I HIT MY 6 Month Mark here in Ghana!!! what a JOY it's been and chi (Ghana word) it's gone by fast!! I can't believe it.

Today for preparation day we, the zone of elders, played in a soccer match against some kids from the college here. Apparently they are a minor league team! I played all the positions besides goalie. It was fun. I was told that I was one of the better white guys playing! ha ha ha The score ended up being 5-2 but...the ELDERS scored first!!!

I want to share a great faith building experience I had this week. We had a great zone training meeting on Tuesday with President Snow, our mission president, which was so insightful and uplifting. You could feel the spirit flowing during the meeting. We took what we learned about having faith to do all things in missionary work and we put it into practice the next day.

We went to go see a member at a small shop she owns. We sat down inside and saw a man and a woman sitting there talking. As we were just chilling in the shade, from the hot Ghana sun, I felt impressed to pull out The Book of Mormon and start reading. I thought to myself, well that's kinda odd, why right now? Then another thought came to my head, just open it and read, someone will ask a question about it. So I did and the spirit directed. I opened up the Book of Mormon to a random page and just started reading. Again, I thought to my self, that's enough nothing is happening. But then I felt prompted to just wait. Sure enough I hear the man speak up from across the room, "Mormon?, whats that?" And then BOOMMM...greatest missionary opportunity I've had yet!!! We started discussing and even made plans to meet with him again!

Brothers, sisters, family and friends,

How great our lives could be if we followed the direction from the spirit every second of the day!!! How grateful I am for the opportunity to serve the Lord at this time!! I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints IS Christ's church on the earth today!! I know God lives as does His son, Jesus Christ! My love for them is strong! I pray that through out this week we may all turn our thoughts towards Christ as we face our various challenges. Through this our faith will grow as we put our trust in Him!

I love and miss y'all so much!!

Have an amazing week!!

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA MORRIS

As well to my BEAUTIFUL MOTHER!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

Love, Elder Morris

February 29th, 2016 GOT WATER?

HELLOOO!!!

How’s life back home?? Staying cool?

Turns out the water they've been bringing to us is dirty. We had to have someone come and clean our tank and then once again we didn’t have water for a day. Luckily, our bishop is in the fire service so he was able to bring the fire truck by the house and hook us up with clean water!! It was great to shower normally again!! Okay, it wasn’t normal because I’m in Africa, but it was refreshing coming out of the pipe!

This week we closed with 1 baptism! Her name is Angelina. I’ve had 5 baptisms fall through within the last month...which is okay, I guess, because it’s all about the Lord"s timing but I’m happy that this girl was able to be baptized. We didn’t have water in the chapel (because there is no water in the city...water sanitation problem!!!) so we took her to the beach!! Sadly, we didn’t perform the baptism but the ward members did. It was great!

Today we went with the other Elders in our area to Swedro, a city near by, for a small zone activity! We played basket ball and ultimate Frisbee and just walked around the market. Oh also this week we made ground nut stew!! It’s one of our favorites out here!!

This upcoming week, we have a zone training meeting and on March 14th, Elder Rasband (a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles), will be coming to visit us here in Ghana Accra!!! We are so excited to have a meeting with him!

Every soul is great in the eyes of God!! Yes that even means you!! I read that talk by Brad Wilcox this week called "His Grace is Sufficient" (https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox_his-grace-is-sufficient/) that we are never lost if we will but turn to God.

In the talk he says "One young man wrote me the following email: I know God has all power, and I know He will help me if I'm worthy, but I’m just never worthy enough to ask him for help. I want Christ's grace, but I always find myself stuck in the same-defeating and impossible position; no work no grace. Brother Wilcox adds, "I wrote him back and testified with all my heart that Christ is not waiting at the finish line once we have done all we can do, (2 Nephi 25:23) He is with us every step of the way!"

For those of you who may struggle from time to time with temptation or sin, and those of you feeling that you can’t get back on the right path, well think differently! Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ, are waiting for you to turn to them! Turn to them in prayer!! If you don’t feel worthy to ask for God's help, ASK anyway!! That’s the perfect time!! There’s no better time to ask for our Savior’s help then when we are in doubt!! That doubt comes from Satan trying to discourage us to come unto Christ!!!

Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work. Doctrine and Covenants 10:5

I’m grateful for all the email and letters and packages and SUPPORT that I get from all of you!

I hope you have a great week!!

Love you!

Elder Morris!!